History Fridge / MalcolmInTheMiddle

* Episode 2 has Lois catch the boys doing something embarassing. As she video records it as part of a punishment, she claims that "[their] grandma and all [their] friends" would love to see the tape at their next birthday party. The brilliance kicks in when we remember how vindictive, cruel, and hateful towards her family Ida is. Of course she'd love to see the boys embarrassed in front of all their friends.

* The Red Dress shows Hal smoking. Except later episodes establish that they quit. EarlyInstallmentWeirdness? Actually - Hal was doing it when he ''knew'' that nobody else was around. He could have easily been sneaking one or two in or just near the end of quitting at the time, since he's never shown smoking again. He just replaces it with coffee.

*In the episode "Polly in the Middle", when Polly was being forced to choose between Abe and Craig as a boyfriend, she said "If society wasn't so strung up, I wouldn't need to make this decision." This implies that for her, it's be ideal to have an intimate relationship that consists of three people, a practice also known as a "Polyamory". Could her name, "Polly" be a stealth pun on her romantic tendencies?

** Actually, school systems these days will send you into all sorts of counseling and may even suspend or expel a kid who's past the age of 17 for drawing those kinds of pictures. Though, that's besides the point. The previous troper is right... only when it comes to anyone looking at the picture who isn't a teacher.

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** Actually, school systems these days will send you into all sorts of counseling and may even suspend or expel a kid who's past the age of 17 for drawing those kinds of pictures. Though, that's besides the point. The previous troper is right... only when it comes to anyone looking at the picture who isn't a teacher.

** It's more that a child of Dewey's age was having Reese like thoughts. If you saw a 17 year old drawing a picture of someone being stabbed with lots of blood coming out, you'd think it was a odd, but nothing more. But if you saw a 10 year old drawing the same picture, you would assume there was something wrong with the child.

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** It's more that a child of Dewey's age was having Reese like thoughts. If you saw a 17 year old drawing a picture of someone being stabbed with lots of blood coming out, you'd think it was a odd, but nothing more. But if you saw a 10 year old drawing the same picture, you would assume there was something wrong with the child.

* How come they don't ''actually'' torture Jaime? Because for most of the series, Jaime's an infant or a toddler. The boys have a standard that they don't torture babies and infants. This also can be taken as maturity; since Francis tortured Malcolm and Reese the way they tortured Dewey; but as the boys matured, they decided to stop torturing their brothers.

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* How come they don't ''actually'' torture Jaime? Jamie? Because for most of the series, Jaime's Jamie's an infant or a toddler. The boys have a standard that they don't torture babies and infants. This also can be taken as maturity; since Francis tortured Malcolm and Reese the way they tortured Dewey; but as the boys matured, they decided to stop torturing their brothers.

** Not really. With ''very'' limited exceptions, a minor cannot legally enter into contracts, and that would include the terms of a credit card. Not to mention that if once the judge found out that the credit-card company had just opened the accounts and given him the cards without even determining his elegibility or getting a signature, they'd be laughed out of the courtroom. (There is precedent for this; Amex ended up losing a court case where it turned out that they'd kept giving additional cards to a woman who lived in a trailer with no visible means of support. Every time she maxed out her card, they gave her another one, and the judge ruled that they should've known better and that they'd have to just eat the loss. And this was someone who ''could'' legally enter into contracts.)

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** Not really. With ''very'' limited exceptions, a minor cannot legally enter into contracts, and that would include the terms of a credit card. Not to mention that if once the judge found out that the credit-card company had just opened the accounts and given him the cards without even determining his elegibility eligibility or getting a signature, they'd be laughed out of the courtroom. (There is precedent for this; Amex ended up losing a court case where it turned out that they'd kept giving additional cards to a woman who lived in a trailer with no visible means of support. Every time she maxed out her card, they gave her another one, and the judge ruled that they should've known better and that they'd have to just eat the loss. And this was someone who ''could'' legally enter into contracts.)

[[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And that's all that will be said about that]].** If they just wanted Malcolm to save their asses, they would have just made him take a six figure salary job since they could then easily guilt trip him into buying them a better house, nicer things etc. Doing that means it just helps them. The President plan is exactly what Lois said it was, so Malcolm can become a President who actually thinks about the lower classes and help all of America.*** Going alone with the previous thought. A core theme of the show is that Malcolm's family are constantly struggling at with being lower class. In fact, much of the ingenuity and intelligence of the children come from the fact that the family has no money. Dewey creates a piano out of household items. The boys entertain themselves with junk found around the house. It's something that causes tears at their foundation but also brings them together. Exemplified in Reese's laugh at Malcolm, "Ha, ha! You're poor!...aww wait." The show displays that families don't need money to have love for one another. In Lois' final speech, she's telling Malcolm he's not going to be the president for just his family, but for all the lower class families who struggle to stay a unit through all the hard times. "What does matter is you'll be the only in that position who will ever give a crap about people like us. We've been getting the short end of the stick for thousands of years, and I, for one, am sick of it."

* This troper doesn't really know what to call this (fringe critical research failure maybe) but Malcolm's family plan of making Malcolm president so he can fix their problems, how exactly do they plan on him doing that? Are they hoping for limitless welfare (spoiler warning the economy doesn't work that way) or are they just going to mooch off Malcolm forever?

Reason: You\'re missing the point. It wasn\'t so that he could fix their financial problems specifically (partly because it\'ll be at least 20 years before he could ever possibly be President), it was about solving the world\'s problems.

** Actually, school systems these days will send you into all sorts of counseling and may even suspend or expel a kid who's past the age of 17 for drawing those kinds of pictures. Though, that's besides the point. The previous troper is right... only when it comes to anyone looking at the picture who isn't a teacher.

to:

** Actually, school systems these days will send you into all sorts of counseling and may even suspend or expel a kid who's past the age of 17 for drawing those kinds of pictures. Though, that's besides the point. The previous troper is right... only when it comes to anyone looking at the picture who isn't a teacher.teacher.* This troper doesn't really know what to call this (fringe critical research failure maybe) but Malcolm's family plan of making Malcolm president so he can fix their problems, how exactly do they plan on him doing that? Are they hoping for limitless welfare (spoiler warning the economy doesn't work that way) or are they just going to mooch off Malcolm forever?

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